Louisiana Celebrations Rooted in Tradition

By Jane Vidrine

Hopefully the first vent
du nord will have arrived by the time of the 1988 Louisiana
Folklife Festival. What a great time to pull out that okra which
you put up on the hottest day of last summer and prepare the
season's first gumbo!

The cool winds of a Louisiana
fall and the rich aroma of gumbo fall are upon us. Lauren Post's
Cajun Sketches describes it:

"The chinaberry trees
. . . turn a beautiful yellow with the first frost, which is
apt to come in November . . . Sugarcane holds its color
longest . . . Although the winters are short they bring about
a dullness in the landscape thought to be characteristic
only of climates of far more northerly latitude . . . Between
cold spells, the balmy winds the Gulf blow and ultimately bring
rain" (Post 1974).

Preparation and anticipation.
Whether it is in the making of a pot of gumbo or in advance of
a holy day or celebration, process or ritual are repeated again
and again, year after year, We look forward to the repetition.
The yearly cycle of seasonal events and holidays serve as guideposts
for our identity. Yet, the modern lifestyles led by most of us
have caused the altering of our traditional behavior calendar.
Many of the seasonal communal acts which were once essential
and significant to the maintenance of familiar relations and
community welfare are no longer relevant. Some of these are syrupmaking,
hog boucheries, carding and weaving, and la veille
(overnight visits among families).

All Saints Day

The day after Halloween,
All Saints Day (La Toussaint), is more important in south
Louisiana than in any other area of the country both as a Catholic
Holy Day of Obligation and as a day of family unity. "According
to the custom of the people, all crops had to be in, hogs were
turned out to glean the cornfields and potato patches (Post 1974:18).

Eveland Augustin maintains the grave of her brother in Lacombe. Photo: Laura Westbrook.

The day is one of elaborate
ceremony closely aligned with Latin American celebrations on
the "Day of the Dead." Many people recount that "families
would gather all day to whitewash the graves and decorate them
for All Saints." They would bring a picnic lunch and eat
at the cemetery. Every tomb was adorned with a coronne de
toussaints, a wreath of artificial or fresh flowers. Since
the flowers of All Saints Day were to be everlasting through
the year, the use of the waxed paper flower wreaths was popular.
At one time, many women made the wreaths. One source said Black
women would sell their wreaths on the steps of St. Martin de
Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville. Today, the use of crepe
paper wreaths has been largely replaced by plastic flowers. In
some French Catholic cemeteries in southeast Louisiana parishes,
a late evening mass is followed by a candlelight ceremony in
the graveyard and a blessing of the tombs. One gentleman remembers,
"They would parade and parade . . . . Each one would put
the candle on his [family's] tomb and kneel down and the priest
would bless the dead." Most of the people interviewed have
no recollection of this practice in Lafayette, St. Martin, St.
Landry or Evangeline parishes, but many churches do conduct daytime
mass followed by a blessing of the cemetery.

For more on All Saints Day
waxed paper wreaths, obtain Craft Talk: Interviews with Five
Traditional Louisiana Craftspeople, available from the Lafayette
Natural History Museum bookstore.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been
celebrated the same as in other parts of the country with a gathering
of family and friends for a bountiful meal. What distinguishes
a Cajun Thanksgiving meal or any other meal, is the food preparation
. . . particularly the dressing. Families traditions differed
concerning the stuffing--whether oyster dressing, rice and meat
dressing, or cornbread dressing was traditional or whether the
turkey was to be stuffed or not. In the northern United States,
pecan bread dressing may be made with the broth of the turkey
giblets which was the piece-de-resistance of the Thanksgiving
meal. In Louisiana, many people did not even have turkey until
recent years, but pork which had been killed at a fall boucheries
was the accepted are.

Christmas

In many parts of the northern
United States, it is always freezing outside by Christmas time.
That may be why the custom of shooting off firecrackers and guns
on Christmas eve never caught on. Many people tell about staying
up Christmas eve for midnight mass and coming home to a big pot
of gumbo on the stove. One Creole gentlemen recalled "breakfast
dances" which were held in some of the clubs after midnight
mass until sunrise. Those stopped when closing laws made the
clubs shut down by 2 am. Most people in South Louisiana relate
that gift giving was modest in their childhood. The children's
stocking were hung on Christmas eve and the next day contained
a trinket and some fruit and sweets. Adults rarely exchanged
gifts.

St Nicholas greets the children in Roberts Cove. Photo: Pat Mire.

St. Nicholas Day (December
5) is an interesting tradition celebrated by the families of
German descent in Robert's Cove in Acadia parish. For many generations,
extended families have gathered at homes in the cove to await
Kris Kringle (St. Nicholas) and Black Peter to bring treats for
the good children. Several older people remember being afraid
of this impressive bearded figure in white robes with a shepherd's
staff, for he was said to punish the children who had not been
good since last Christmas. Around the time of World War II, the
St. Nicholas Day celebration was suspended but has seen a revival
in recent years. The choir accompanied by St. Nicholas, Black
Peter, and Santa Claus visit about ten homes in the cove. All
the children are given treats, the choir sings German Christmas
carols, and sweets and beverages are served. St. Nicholas Day
continues to serve as an annual reminder of the Cove's German
heritage.

In the Mississippi River
parishes of St. James and St. John the Baptist, bonfires have
been lit on the levee since the mid-1800s. According to Marcia
Gaudet's Tales from the Levee, the bonfires in Louisiana originated
with the Marist priests at Jefferson College in Convent. "These
French priests began building and lighting bonfires on the batture
on New Years Eve, a tradition they had known in France. Years
later, the tradition was moved to Christmas Eve and the fires
were built on the levee." The fires were constructed as
a tall four-sided pyre with timbers laid log-cabin style and
fueled by any kind of trash which was stacked in the middle.
Today, the building of fires is elaborate and very competitive.
Teams of young men organize themselves year after year to build
the biggest and most unique fire. The structures range from life-sized,
fully equipped oil rigs to forts. Competition between the groups
is so strong that often the teams post 24-hour guard during the
week of construction so to guard against the possibility of arson
or sabotage. To see the bonfires on the levee, drive along the
Mississippi River levee south of Baton Rouge after dark on Christmas
Eve.

New Year's Eve

In the countryside throughout
the south, the New Year has traditionally been rung in by the
sound of shotguns and firecrackers at midnight on New Year's
Eve. Some Cajuns remember that Tit Homme Janvier (some
call him Bonhomme Janvier), a snowy-bearded bearer of
good tiding, would pass and leave fruit and nuts in the children's
shoes and stockings. For many families New Year's was the time
for trinket exchange, not Christmas.

Some communities along the Mississippi River in St. James, St. John the Baptist, and Ascension parishes celebrate Christmas by lighting bonfires on the levee to “light the way for Papa Noel.” Photo: Courtesy of St. James Parish Economic Development.

An interesting French tradition
is the running of La Guignolee (Gaie Annee). This is a
long standing New Year's Eve custom in French communities of
the mid-Mississippi Valley such as Old Mines (Les Vielles
Mones), Missouri, and Prairie du Rocher, Illinois. Of note
because it is closely related to the Cajun courir de Mardi
Gras the intent of La Guignolee is to gather pledges
of food and money for a king's ball held between Twelfth Night
and Mardi Gras. On New Year's Eve, the men dress in disguise
as Indians or in old clothes turned inside out. The gang of revelers
travels afoot from house to house in the countryside with lanterns
as their only light. Today, trucks provide the transportation.
In the quiet of the night, they sneak up on the porch of each
house and sing La Guignolee accompanied by a fiddle.

In a recollection from the
Anonymous Breaux Manuscript (1901), the author observes
"people who have long been enemies seizing the opportunity
which the day presents to be reconciled and to wish other good
fortune and prosperity. A young man who wishes to marry often
asks his sweetheart's parents for permission to marry."

A traditional New Year's
dish, black-eyed peas and cabbage, symbolizes the promise of
good luck and money in the coming year. It is still prepared
and eaten diligently by many every year.

Today, recently created community
festivals have become the calendrical markers of cultural identity.
They have taken the place of many deeply rooted rituals which
once served to reinforce the concepts of community and family.

Sources

Gaudet, Marcia. 1984. Tales from the Levee. Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana.